MMA News

UFC NEWS – Kenny Florian May Be Forced Into Early Retirement With Back Injury

Three time UFC title challenger, Kenny “Kenflo” Florian has reportedly suffered a back in jury that may force him out of competition and into retirement.

The Boston Herald has the scoop:

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Florian has dealt with back problems throughout his career, but suffered a new injury in November while lifting weights. Having already planned to take six months off to build back to lightweight after losing a featherweight title shot in October, Florian didn’t expect the injury to be a major setback.

But two months have passed and Florian’s condition hasn’t improved. He has been dealing with tingling and numbness down his right leg and hasn’t been able to train.

Florian has met with an orthopedic doctor and a neurologist and both instructed the 35-year-old to retire.

“It’s possible, unfortunately,” Florian said of his career ending. “I’ve kind of been going back-and-forth with some of the doctors, so it’s possible. I’m going to see. As of right now, obviously I can’t compete and train like I was at all. I’m just kind of doing what I can and hoping that things heal up and get better. I’m just kind of in a holding pattern. That’s why I decided to do this commentary for the time being and take this next six months to really heal up and try to make some money on the side. It sucks. The last couple of months I’ve just been figuring out what’s going on and what I’m going to do.”

21 Responses to “UFC NEWS – Kenny Florian May Be Forced Into Early Retirement With Back Injury”

KenFlo will be back if he can; retiring is just the new fad.. i think he just want’s to take sometime off and find his direction after failing to get a belt, then when he’s healthy he’ll got for another shot… or maybe he’ll be content to sit behind a desk.

Some people knock Florian, but he goes out there and puts it on the line every time. He’s been pushing hard for MMA in New York too. I hate to see any career cut short when a fighter isn’t ready to go. I hope Kenny heals up and we get to see him a few more times.

That sucks I like Kenny, he always brings it and leaves everything in the cage. I know first hand what a back injury can be like,(bulging disc) and it sucks!… best of luck to him and I hope to see him back in the cage some day.

he’s fought in four different weight classes and has been a three time title contender in all. what else is he going to do? i think that sadly, he knows that he isn’t able to achieve UFC gold and makes more $$ doing much easier work analyzing for FOX.

“Unfortunately?” Making more money doing “easier work” is unfortunate? Wow. Not everyone actually makes it to a championship fight, let alone win it. And you seem to be looking down on Florian. Wow. Talk about arrogance. I’m sure you reached the pinnacle of your profession already without any problems. Way to go.

wow that sucks kenny i hope you get better and if not you seem to be a pretty smart guy hopefully there will be something else in the sport you can still do such as commentary or be a trainer but whatever you decide to do i wish you the best man

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